


Another Tony is Leaving Story: The One DPB Would Approve

by Deconblus



Category: NCIS
Genre: Have you seen the Quantum Leap and Magnum finales, Not even pre-slash, Not slash which is weird cause I read slash endlessly, no beta ;(
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-20
Updated: 2016-02-20
Packaged: 2018-05-22 06:06:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 691
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6067954
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Deconblus/pseuds/Deconblus
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What it says on the tin.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Another Tony is Leaving Story: The One DPB Would Approve

It didn't come to him as an epiphany. No scales suddenly fell off his eyes. No glowing anything suddenly spoke or showed itself to him. If anything like that had happened, he probably wouldn't have gone. Too stubborn. Too skeptical. Too sane? 

No. It had been a slow growing realization – like an alien (only the good kind). Well in the end, it had definitely been the good kind. But to be honest – and he was trying to be – it had felt more like the bad kind when he started really feeling it. This. 

At first, he had found himself looking – around the bullpen, at his friends, at the crime scenes and the interrogation rooms – just looking. As if these were stills from a movie and he was trying to decide if he wanted to go see it. Where were these rooms? Who were these people? Why was he there? What was he doing there? When did he start to feel outside it all? 

The team dynamics had changed after Ziva left. That was inevitable and normal. This wasn't Bewitched where a new Darren just walked through the door one day and no one said a word. Ziva hadn't been Kate. Emily wasn't Ziva. It was kinda cool that she was little and blond and geeky and really good at English cause then no one could ever pretend she was Ziva – that would have been just wrong.

So he bought another fish -- named it Ziva -- and now unwound, beer in hand, Kate and Ziva in bowl, and talked about his day. Zoe had started calling it his confessional (and shouldn't that have been a clue): “Forgive me ladies, for I may have sinned.” And maybe it had been a sign that he never felt as clear after talking to her as he did to Kate and Ziva – the fish.

One day after getting head slapped for staring just a little too long at “nothing,” he decided he was ready to talk about this or more precisely, think about finding someone to talk to about this. Maybe Gibbs had finally knocked some sense into him, maybe. This definitely wasn't going to be a sitting on the basement steps watching Gibbs work conversation. In fact, it needed to be an outside NCIS conversation. He loved and respected all of his chosen family. But now, he wanted – needed – someone else, someone outside, someone really outside.

Maybe if he'd been Jewish – thinking of the last season of Numb3rs – but Gibbs wasn't Jewish and he wasn't Jewish and he needed to find a priest. Funny, you get close to 50 and your early childhood is your reflex response? He could hear that sentence being spoken by the dad from Numb3rs – Judd Hirsch, good actor. He was in Taxi – one of the all time great ensemble shows with Danny Devito, Andy Kaufman, Christopher Lloyd – and Gibbs would actually laugh out loud if he could hear Tony's inner voices some days. So, yeah, he needed to find a lapsed-friendly, so lapsed his attendance barely made a blip in the universe, friendly not traditional priest.

Father Larry Clannon. Kate had liked him. Using his old info -- over a decade (and wasn't that a kick) – Tony was amazed he actually found the guy so easily. Maybe that was sign. And maybe it was another sign that he was now accepting signs. Yeah, Gibbs would love to hear these inner monologues. So the guys exchanged jokes and schedules and made a date for a talk over a couple beers – and Tony thanked all the Gods he could think of that priests could drink. Time passed. Zoe and he passed. More petty officers passed. He and Father L kept talking. 

Like I said at the beginning, Tony didn't wake up one morning knowing. He didn't see a light or hear a voice. This was gradual, talked-through – definitely out side the box – just like all his best murder solutions. Only for once this solution wasn't going to be about death – it was going to be all about life, Tony's life. Tony's new life. And with this new life came a new name – Father Michael.

**Author's Note:**

> I keep changing the name at the end. Michael is the patron saint of all military. If you have any better ideas -- please share.


End file.
